Means of Identification:

Means of Identification:

New Acquisitions to the WFU Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art

AUGUST 23 – DECEMBER 10, 2021

MAIN GALLERY

During the spring semester of 2021, the Student Union Art Acquisitions Committee (SUAAC), consisting of an unprecedented thirteen WFU students, purchased nine artworks for the Collection.  The academic year of 2020-2021 was, indeed, unprecedented as COVID-19 infiltrated daily life. The impact of this global pandemic is still on-going: it has claimed millions of lives and changed the ways in which each of us relates to and navigates the world. As the university responded to the challenges of safely reopening campus, the SUAAC members and faculty advisors pivoted to continue this one of a kind, nearly 60 year-old program of student’s acquiring contemporary art for the WFU Art Collection. 

Restricted travel prevented the Committee from traveling to New York City to look at the work in person, so they instead paid virtual visits to dozens of galleries in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, and Detroit. While the trip was not possible, the main requirement for acquisitions remained the same since the founding of the program in 1962: to purchase art that reflects the times in which it was made. As the coronavirus was spreading and the world faced a debilitating economic crisis, a summer of racial reckoning, a U.S. Presidential Election, an insurrection on the nation’s Capital building, and a political shift in the fight for climate change, artists were responding. 

While the Committee focused on artists who were reacting to this unparalleled time in history, and were deeply committed to diversifying Wake Forest’s art collection with underrepresented artists, they were also concerned, as all previous such WFU students have been, with selecting works of artistic quality and merit. The theme of identity and challenging conventions while exploring attributes such as gender, sexuality, race, nationality and heritage, is a common thread in each artwork. The new acquisitions include work by Zanele Muholi, Betty Tompkins, Jay Lynn Gomez (formerly Ramiro Gomez), and Willie Cole. New additions also include a photograph by Martine Gutierrez, the first trans artist of Mayan heritage for the Collection; as well as a print by Detroit artist and Winston-Salem native Rashaun Rucker. 

The 2021 acquisitions also feature paintings by Salman Toor and Jorge Tacla, and a mixed media work by Suchitra Mattai. By confronting history, these artists contribute to contemporary dialogue by making visible the struggles and perseverance of those who lived it. Yet, questions of the potential of art to impact the way we view and address racial and ethnic identity here and globally remain. Given the complexities of identity in a global era—the boundlessness of individual diasporic and transcultural identities—how does contemporary art challenge our institutions and art history? Seen through this lens of identity, these nine artworks, now a permanent part of the Wake Forest’s Art Collection, contribute to this critical discourse of our time.  

Organization

Works selected by  the 2021 Student Union Art Acquisition Committee (SUAAC): Maddy Barnick (’22), Anna Burkhardt (’22), Lucy Chapman (’23), Sarah Comegno (’21), Emma Cooney (’23), Jacqueline Dishner (’21), Amy Dyckman (’21), Emma Hein (’21), Lynn Huffard (’21), Mikey Mattone (’21), Lucy Owen (’23), Leah Rodman (’22), and Chrisann Timbie (’22). Guided by: Jay Curley, Associate Professor, Art History; Jennifer Finkel, Acquavella Curator of Collections; David Finn, Chair of the Department of Art and Professor, Studio Art.